Category Archives: Case Files of Justis Fearsson

So the release of Spell Blind (book I of the Case Files of Justis Fearsson) is just a few days off — January 6, from Baen Books — and I haven’t even offered a teaser yet!! Time to rectify that. This is the opening. More to come . . .

Ask most people to point at the moon, and they’ll lift their gazeskyward, trying to locate it. Ask the same of a weremyste like me, and we don’t have to search for it. We know where it is. Always, and precisely. As it waxes full, we can feel it robbing us of our sanity and enhancing the strength of our magic. Like ocean tides, our minds and our runecraft are subject to its pull.

I was on the interstate cutting across the outskirts of Phoenix, andalready I could feel the moon tugging at my thoughts, subtle and light, but as insistent as a curious child. Three hours before today’smoonrise, nearly a week before it would wax full, and its touch was as real to me as the leather steering wheel against my palms, the rush of the morning desert air on my face and neck.

I sensed the reservoir of power within me responding to its caress,like water to gravity. And I felt as well the madman lurking inside myhead, coaxing the moon toward full, desperate to be free again.I had five days.

And in the meantime, I had work to do.

Work for me means investigating. Once it meant being a detectivefor the Phoenix Police Department, but those days are gone. I was on the job for six years and eight months. The day I turned in my badge was, next to the day twenty years ago when my mother died, the worst of my life. Still, when I look in the mirror, I see a cop, a detective. I’ve heard it said among cops that once you’re on the job, you’re never really off. Some things are like that, they’ll tell you. Some things get in your blood and that’s it. You’re never the same.

I have a post up today at Magical Words — another in what I am calling the Unofficial Winter 2014-15 Spell Blind Blog Tour. The post is called “Taking Stock and Taking Risks,” and it is about the closing of this year and some of my goals for 2015. You can find the post here. I hope you enjoy it, and I wish you all a wonderful New Year.

Some of you have already contacted me about this, and I have noticed it on several bookseller sites: The hardcover edition of Spell Blind, the first book in my new series, The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, will be published by Baen Books on January 6, 2015 — a week from tomorrow. But the electronic version of the book is already available. That’s right, if you read your books on a Kindle or a Nook or a Kobo (like me) or any other e-reader, you can start in on this new adventure right now! I’m not sure why this is the case, but I’m not going to argue about it. So download the book today, and enjoy!

Today on the unofficial Spell Blind Winter 2014-15 Blog Tour, I have two posts up. The first can be found at the Magical Words blogsite. It’s a pretty light-hearted post — a list of holiday superlatives (best holiday movie, best gift I’ve ever received and given — that sort of thing). It’s meant to be fun and will, I hope, prompt others to offer similar lists in the comments section. The Magical Words post can be found here.

The second post is at the SFNovelists blogsite and it is about the new series I have coming out from Baen — the Case Files of Justis Fearsson. The Fearsson books are the first that I have set in the contemporary world, and writing in this world is quite different from setting a novel in a created world, or even a historical setting. The SFNovelists post touches on some of those differences and can be found here.

I hope you enjoy them both, and I wish all of you a wonderful holiday and a happy and successful 2015.

Today’s post, the latest in the unofficial Spell Blind Winter 2014-15 Blog Tour, can be found at the Magical Words blog site. The post discusses point of view, and for those who know me this comes as no surprise. I happen to believe that point of view is one of the most important narrative tools a writer has at his/her disposal. Specifically, the post looks at the choices we make with regard to point of view and voice, and how those choices shape a project and are also shaped by the project. You can find the post here. I hope you enjoy it.

“Long Nights Moon,” the first published short story (or fiction of any sort for that matter) in the Justis Fearsson universe is up and available at Baen.com. This holiday themed short story takes place before the action described in Spell Blind, Book I in the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, which will be released by Baen Books on January 6, 2015. I had a great time writing this story and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I hope you enjoy it. The story can be found here.

And just a note, the first line should read: “December’s full moon is known among some of the tribal peoples of North America as the Cold Moon, or the Long Nights Moon.”

Today’s post in the unofficial Spell Blind Winter 2014-15 Blog Tour can be found over at Magical Words. The post is called “Openings, Hooks, and Breaking Rules,” and it breaks down the opening passages of Spell Blind, the first book in the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, the new urban fantasy series I’m writing for Baen Books.

I had certain goals for those opening lines, as all writers do for their openings, and I discuss those in depth in this post. The post can be found here. I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful.

I have a post up today at MagicalWords.net. It’s called “My New Old Book,” and it’s about the twisted, meandering history of Spell Blind, book I of the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, the new novel I have coming out in January from Baen Books. I guess you could say that this post marks the beginning of the Winter 2014-15 Spell Blind Blog Tour, but since I don’t really know what kind of blog tour I’ll be doing for this release, that might be a bit premature.

Still, it’s a fun post. Spell Blind has been through several iterations, it has been rewritten and torn down to its component parts and rewritten again. Its impending publication is a case study in perseverance and authorial stubbornness. So if that sort of thing interests you, you should check it out. Here’s the link: http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/david-b-coe-my-new-old-book/

I am very pleased to welcome you all to the Grand Opening of my new and improved website! This rework of the site was inspired by the impending publication of Spell Blind, the first book in the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, my new contemporary urban fantasy series, which will be published by Baen Books. Spell Blind hits the shelves on January 6.

I hope you’ll check out the site, which includes sample chapters of not only the new book but also novels from my backlist, as well as this blog, where I’ll be posting news and essays about writing and publishing, and an updated events calendar for 2015. There are even links to the D.B. Jackson website. I plan to add other pages as well, but they’re not ready yet.

On the other hand, as you can see, I’ve got some doodads and doohickeys in place that make the site look pretty spiffy. I want to thank the great tech guys at Sff.net for their help with the site (Steve, I’m looking at you), as well as my friend and code sensei, Tim Rohr. (Link provided so you can check out Tim’s writing!)

[Looking around.] Yeah, the place is starting to look good. The site is coming together. We’ve got some content up, there’s information about all of my books, and we’ve even posted sample chapters from much of my backlist as well as from SPELL BLIND, the first novel in the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, the new urban fantasy series I’m writing for Baen. SPELL BLIND comes out on January 6

On December 15, a short story set in the Fearsson universe will be published at the Baen website. The story is called “Long Nights Moon,” and it pre-dates the events chronicled in the first book. So you can read it without fear of encountering spoilers. I hope you’ll check it out — I like the story a lot.

Not much else to report. I wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving, and I look forward to seeing you back here soon.